NYDC joins Saint Mary's

Tim Richard formed award-winning company here in 1997

Tim Richard formed award-winning company here in 1997

April 10, 2007|JUDY BRADFORD Tribune Correspondent

SOUTH BEND -- "Rock this party, move your body, get hot in this party." The words boom out LOUD. The dancers gyrate with body rolls, jump ever so close to the ground in hip-hop fashion, and stomp in syncopated street-style rhythm. The 10-minute high-energy piece, with university-approved pyrotechnics, will be performed at an upcoming dance concert at Saint Mary's College. But it's also the piece that made Tim Richard realize how much he missed New York City and being around professional dancers. Richard is an original member of C&C Music Factory, best known for its early '90s hit "Gonna Make You Sweat/Everybody Dance Now." With that music, Richard performed in a reunion show last summer in New York City for dancers and musicians of the late 1980s and early '90s. "It was an industry show, kind of where-are-they-now thing sponsored by People Magazine," Richard says. "Cyndi Lauper was involved, along with Jody Watley, who was sort of another Janet Jackson." "And it made me realize how happy I am doing this work," Richard says. "We rehearsed eight hours a day, just like the old days. I had blisters and bloody toes. As much as we were killing ourselves, I loved it." And that, in turn, led to a decision to split his time between the Big Apple and South Bend. He'll be in South Bend in the spring semesters, and in New York City working at studios during the summers and falls. The New York Dance Connection, an award-winning company he formed in 1997 from high school-age dancers in the area, will now become part of Saint Mary's College. NYDC dancers will be exposed to a college program and may be able to tour to other colleges. They may even get college credit, if the arrangement can be worked out. "Actually, the parents were the instigators," Richard says. "For all the money they've spent on dance lessons, it would be more of an investment." Indi Dieckgrafe, director of dance at the college, is excited about the possibility for professional exchanges. "If we send people to Tim, or he brings them back here to teach, we'll keep that energy going," she says. And while his specialty has been jazz, both Richard and Dieckgrafe are interested in nurturing other forms of dance. Richard says he has always been impressed with the caliber of dancers at the college program. "Some are really good, and they already come with (dance) credentials." In addition to directing the NYDC, which has been based at Flint Dance Studio in Mishawaka, he's been teaching at Saint Mary's since 2003. He grew up in this area but left in the early '90s to make a name for himself in New York. During his professional career there, however, he developed cancerous tumors on the base of his spine. He was 29. He moved back here to recuperate -- but couldn't stay away from the dance studio. Ten years later, the piece that will be performed -- with his own choreography -- at the end of April is sort of a celebration, then, of the new relationship. It will have the old MTV look, with sets that move in and out and one-minute costume changes, offstage. Richard has taken an updated version of the original "Gonna Make You Sweat" song and combined it with Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation." "I just keep asking myself 'What would I do with this, if I were choreographing it for the Grammy Awards, or something big like that.'"